The Other Side
by ProudAndThusFallen
Summary: Troy isn't what he seems. Tria (Troy/Gia)
1. First Day of School!

Troy's POV

I was never like this. She turned me into this.

I was the hot guy type, the one who girls would talk about with their best friends. The girls would giggle and whisper when I crossed them in the hallway. I was hardly everserious and thoughtful. And _never_ alone.

It was my first day in my new school, and I was trying to work out how to make a cool impression on the students to attract as many girls as I could. I fell asleep on the school bus and I had this _really_ weird dream about these guys in fancy costumes and helmets. That's when the bus driver woke me up. I walked into my class, embarrassed. So much for a good impression.

After class, I went to my locker to settle my stuff. A Hispanic guy next to me caught my attention.

"So you're the new guy. Troy Burrows, right?" he asked "Just a piece of advice, whatever you do, try not to fall for Miss Perfect." He cocked his head at someone behind me. I turned around to see who it was, and my jaw dropped. Literally.

A _really_ beautiful girl with waist length blonde hair was standing in front of her locker. She was just awesome! The blue eyes, the perfect figure, the red lips...

"Gorgeous, isn't she?" the Hispanic guy zapped me back into reality, "She's the hottest girl in school. Gia Moran. Remember that name!" he walked away.

That day during class, I was dreaming about her all the time. I had to get her. I just had to. But how? Take the same classes as her? Nah...I had to become a big part of her life. And fast.


	2. We're Rangers?

Troy's POV

I was training on the roof of a building after school, my thoughts still devoted to Gia. If she is the hottest girl, I thought, then she's bound to have all the school boys as admirers. She wouldn't mind having me as one, too.

I was thinking about how to get her attention and trying to kick a flying water bottle at the same time when red mist swirled around me and I disappeared. Weird, right?

I landed (actually, I fell) in a dark room which looked like a cave. Right next to me, a guy in a black jacket fell on another guy wearing glasses. On my other side, fell...Gia. I tried my hardest not to blush. She looked graceful even while falling, like a princess-fairy-angel.

As I got up, I saw that in the middle of the room, there were five podiums, coloured red, yellow, blue, green and pink. There was a huge tiki head on the wall and a little robot was moving excitedly about our feet. But the things that really caught my attention were the little figurines on the shelf like things on the wall right and left of us.

"Evil powers from distant worlds have been trying to take over the earth. We have chosen you five to protect the earth from these," The head spoke, "I am Gosei, student of the great Zordon and your mentor."

The guy in the black jacket raised his eyebrow. "I didn't know tiki heads could talk?"

"But there are only four of us," Gia broke in, "You mentioned five."

At the exact moment, a girl with brown hair fell right behind us.

Gia sighed, "you too, Emma?"

She got up and nodded.

"Anyway, how are we supposed to fight them?" the guy in specs questioned, "With our bare hands?"

"You will be given the best weapons and suits of armour" Gosei said.

"These figurines look like the guys in my dream," I said.

"They are the rangers of the past. You will be given powers similar to theirs.

"Emma, you are free and contented, like a phoenix. You will be the pink Megaforce ranger. Please take you morpher and cards."

Emma took the small replica of Gosei which had appeared on the pink podium.

"Jake, you are skilful and concentrated, like a snake. You will be the black Megaforce ranger."

Black Jacket accepted his morpher from the green podium gleefully.

"Noah, you are disciplined and clever, like a shark. You will be the blue Megaforce ranger."

Specs took his replica from the blue podium.

"Gia, you are fierce and proud, like the tiger. You will be the yellow Megaforce ranger."

Gia took her morpher from the yellow podium.

"And finally, Troy. You are brave and truthful, like the dragon. You will be the red Megaforce ranger and the leader of the rangers."

I took my mini tiki head.

"And now you leave."


	3. First Time

**Hey! I hope you like the new chapter! It's just about the rangers' first fight, but I wrote it anyway. And there's an important line at the end which I couldn't write at the start of a chapter. Enjoy!**

Troy's POV

In the city, we encountered a bunch of green/black aliens who were terrorising the citizens.

"Oh no!" Emma screamed, "We have to help them!"

"Of course we have to," Gia smirked, "We're Power Rangers."

And with that she rushed into battle. And I followed her.

Gia kicked a loogie in the guts and punched another in the face. Behind us, the others ran in to fight. I swung my leg and caught a loogie in the legs, making him fall, and kicked another in the chest. We were doing pretty good, but then the henchmen got out their guns.

"Uh-oh," Gia said as she ran behind a car for shelter. I jumped over the car and landed next to her. The guns fired behind us. Then we ran to join the team who weren't doing too well themselves.

Suddenly, the people began screaming even louder and began to run crazily to escape. I turned to find a bigger alien amidst the others.

"So you are the new rangers, eh?"He said, "Not much of an improvement. I am Screamaron, an Armadian General, and I am here to destroy you!"

Noah looked at his morpher. "Aren't these supposed to help?"

"Maybe we put the cards in them, "Jake suggested. Everybody looked at him.

Gia smiled. "That might work."

"Go Go Megaforce!" we yelled, putting our cards into our morphers.

"Megaforce Red! Dragon Sword!"

"Megaforce Yellow! Tiger Claw!"

"Megaforce Blue! Shark Bow gun!"

"Megaforce Black! Snake Axe!"

"Megaforce Pink! Phoenix Shot!"

"Sweet!"Jake yelled.

We gathered around as the monster harassed the people. "Emma and Noah go to the left and distract him."I instructed, "Jake, attack him from the front. Gia, run to the right and try to hold him while I strike him in the chest."

Emma and Noah ran to the left and blasted at the monster. Jake tried to slash at him with his axe but the monster blocked him. Gia tried to attack, but he hit her and sent her flying into Jake. I swung my sword at him, but the monster grabbed it with his left hand, twisted it and threw me onto the ground.

"It's no good," Gia said, "He's too strong for a one-on-one fight."

"What if we combine our weapons?" I asked.

"Good idea," Noah complimented before adding, "Anyway, it's the only one that we have."

We combined the weapons, but with much difficulty.

"Dynamic Victory Charge!" We screamed, as our symbols combined to form a fiery ball of energy that blasted Screamaron to pieces.

"That was too easy, once again," Noah said. Emma smiled, as we started walking away.

I stopped and turned to look at the view. I was about to turn back when something caught my eye. I went closer to get a better look when...

"Troy?" Gia asked, "What are you looking for?"

"I could swear that there was something there."

She nodded doubtfully, but I was pretty sure that there was something there. But I didn't know that the figure was going to play a huge role in my life. And soon...

 **So how did you like it? It was pretty basic, but it's the next chapter where the real story starts!**

 **Read n Review!**


	4. An Old Freind

**Bonjour! Here you go, a brand new chapter to Troy's second personality! And I'm** _ **incredibly**_ **sorry I haven't updated a story for, like, what? Four months?**

Troy's POV

A lot of time had passed since we'd become rangers. Each monster was more difficult to defeat than the last one. But the more we fought, the more we got used to it, and by this time, monster-fighting had become for us, like Noah had said, too easy. But you gotta take this world protection stuff seriously. That's something I've learned over time. But that time was _before_ 'over time', and I had _not_ learned to take responsibility.

My first big mistake.

Another thing I had learned was that the stuck-up, black-snake, _idiota_ , stupid-head _Jake,_ _also_ had a crush on Gia!

Actually, that went for every guy in the school.

But Jake!

Seriously?

 _Jake_?

Please.

I know, I know...everyone deserves a chance, but that doesn't mean _I_ couldn't be jealous! Though I didn't really see any reason for jealousy, I'm a dragon. You know how possessive they can be. I'm just a guy, falling for a really beautiful girl with a really tough personality, a girl who doesn't give a damn how much I care, a girl who's used to have every boy kiss her feet. Just my luck.

But anyway, I think you're more interested in hearing what happened than knowing my side of the story. But I know you can't help it...most people are that way. And you know what I think? Most of you are...

OKAY! I'm starting!

After defeating our 30th monster (or was it 31st? I really don't remember) we were having a kind of party over at Gia's house. We sat in the living room while Noah told us embarrassing stories from his and Jake's childhood, as we laughed our heads off. But some time later Gia left the room, so the 'embarrassing baby stories' weren't very interesting for me anymore.

Anyway, I went through the door a few minutes after she had left, and found her sitting in her room, looking at a framed photograph which she had probably taken out from her cupboard. She was sitting with her back to the door, so I looked over her shoulder to see the picture. In the photograph, a blue-eyed blonde girl was standing next to another guy with sandy blonde hair and green eyes, and they both looked about twelve. Both of them were grinning, and I was pretty sure about another thing. The girl was Gia.

"That someone from your childhood?"

Gia jumped, probably startled, as she hadn't known that I was standing behind her. She turned slowly, and sighed when she saw that it was only me.

"I guess."

She looked pretty fragile, like she didn't want any more questions. Even her reply had been a little half-hearted. I didn't want to pressurize her, but as usual, curiosity killed the cat.

"He moved away from here?"

"Who said he lived here?"

"Wait a sec. You mean you lived somewhere else before you came here?"

"Well, yeah."

"So you knew him before Emma?"

"You get fifty bonus points for guessing that."

I grinned. She may look soft, but Gia was one tough teen.

"You moved here when you were twelve, then?"

"Yup."

"And for how much time did you know him?"

"We met when we were six."

"So this guy had known you for six years before you moved here. Then you met Emma. Now, you and Em have been best friends for three years. From that, I can conclude that the guy in the picture knows you even better than her. You're a complete secret, Miss Moran."

"I never said that Emma knows me better than anybody."

"But your behaviour did."

"Not mine, Em's."

"So am I going to get to know more about the secret friend?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On whether the others are going to come here or not."

"I don't think so. Jake's being a complete idiot as a kid has them occupied."

She raised an eyebrow, and then smiled.

"Then you are going to get to know a lot more about him."

"Okay...then I think you should start already."

She took a deep breath.

"Fine."

I waited.

" You probably don't know, that when I was a kid, I was not comfortable with all the attention I got because of my 'perfection'. Kids do not love fame, and I think you know that.

"At six, I was getting extremely uncomfortable due to the compliments, and decided to run away. Some time after leaving home, I came across a junkyard, where I saw a street kid about my age looking for some metal scraps to sell. Being quite young, I didn't think of the consequences and approached him. I saw that he was wearing clean clothes and had nothing to carry the scraps in. Weirder still, he hadn't even taken out a single metal piece from the junk heap. I asked him what he was doing, to which he replied in a slightly different accent by saying that he had lost his skateboard.

"I told him that a junkyard was not a place to find a lost skateboard, and that he should probably look for it in his home. He said that he wasn't looking for anything; he was finding some scraps to make a new board with. I raised my eyebrows and asked him where he lived. He said that he had run away from home. I said the same, and suggested that we should team up. He agreed. We sat and talked there for about fifteen minutes before my parents arrived, as the junkyard where I had run to was across the road from my house. They asked him where his parents were, and he said that they lived in the house next to ours. My dad grinned and introduced me to the son of our new neighbours, and said that they were from New Zealand.

"That's him. From that day onwards, we became the best of friends, and always were together in everything. Every damn thing. There was another guy too, but he and his mom shifted to Manhattan four years later. Anyway, the I moved here with my parents when I was twelve, and I was sad and angry at my parents for a whole month, and I probably would have been the same way if I hadn't met Emma. Em is my best friend now, but he was the best friend I ever had. He knew my darkest secrets, my deepest desires. He knew me like the back of his hand, he knew me a hundred times better than Emma does. I still miss him every second of my life."

She'd got that faraway look in her eyes while she said that, and I got the feeling that it would be the best thing in her entire life if she could meet him now.

"That was cool, but you didn't tell me one thing."

Gia blinked. "And what is that?"

I rolled my eyes, like it was obvious. "Duh, his name."

She smiled her Gia smile. "Chase Randall."

 **(A/N) Liked it? I hope you did. I'm slightly shifting this into Dino Charge, as you probably guessed. Anyway, R n R!**

 **ProudWhiteTiger, over and out!**


	5. And we're good to go

**Hey! I'm sooo sorry about being late again. I had my exams. But I think I should just hurry and get started with the story.**

Troy's POV

The moment Gia told me the name of that guy, Jake/snakehead, Emma and Noah burst through the door. They looked extremely excited, and from the look on their faces, I could tell that it wasn't another monster invasion.

"What happened?" Gia said, and I felt I heard a little annoyance in her voice, as if she had actually been enjoying that conversation with me. She had got up, and was glaring at them (Jake, especially) as if they had just invaded her privacy. As if I hadn't. But I dared to hope that she liked spending time with me.

Emma was grinning one of her crazy grins. "We got ourselves a vacation!" she said.

Or rather, exploded.

Jake's smile had faltered a little. "What were you guys doing?" He said, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Just having a little chat," I said, trying to sound nonchalant, and failing at doing so. I sounded dangerously possessive of a particular something. Actually, someone.

Snakehead opened his mouth to respond, but Noah beat him to it.

"Anyway," he said, glaring at Jake, "Gosei said a new ranger had joined, and would hold off the Armadians when we were gone."

I frowned. "Just one ranger?"

He shrugged. "Must be strong."

Gia looked thoughtful. "If so, I want to meet him."

Emma tilted her head. "What do you think his spirit animal is?"

Jake smiled. "I think we have better things to worry about now. LIKE WHAT TO DO DURING THE VACATION!" He shouted energetically.

"I guess he's right," Gia sighed. "What do we do?"

Jake shot me a smug look, and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine," I said. "I think we should go somewhere."

Gia grinned and nodded.

I looked at Jake, a satisfied look on my face. He gave me the evil eye.

Noah shrugged. "Where do we go?"

Emma pressed her lips together. "That's a good question."

We fell into a thoughtful silence.

"Well," Gia said after some time, "We could go to this place I know. There's a dinosaur museum over there. My cousin lives there and she manages a dinosaur excavation program there.

"Hmm." Noah raised his eyebrows. "Dinosaurs, dinosaur museum, dinosaur excavation sites. I think that should remind me of something, but I just don't know what. I have got this I-should-know-about-this-thing feeling right now."

Snakehead slapped his best friend on his back. "Probably that you are a know-it-all and a complete geek and you feel you are supposed to know a lot about dinosaurs, and give us a long lecture about this thing, but you are a bit miffed that you can _not_ and are just looking for a stupid explanation or excuse or something to give us that very lecture."

Gia exhaled. "For a guy with such limited mental capacities as you, that was long."

Noah frowned. "I am not a _geek._ "

Emma raised her eyebrows. "Or maybe, just _maybe,_ you are."

Noah stared at her.

Emma smiled nervously.

"Back to topic," I said. "Gia, you were saying something about a dinosaur excavation program?"

Gia nodded. "Uh, so we could go there?"

"So, where is this place?"

"Amber Beach."

Silence again.

Noah spoke up. "I _should_ know something about that _…_ something that's missing…"

Jake rolled his eyes. "Oh, come _on,_ dude."

Emma raised her arms, like, _stop._

So, what now?

I cleared my throat. "Okay, guys. The place has a name now. Are we going to this dino thingy place, or are we not?"

Noah pursed his lips. "I guess we could, but-"

Snakehead broke in. "So what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Gia smiled, obviously amused by our teammate's excitement and clear exhilaration. Jake always complained about how he never got leave because we had the whole save-the-world thing to do. So, the reason for his joy was evident.

" _What I was saying was_ that maybe we should stick around for some time to see if the new guy is working efficiently. Or to make sure he's not a con man."Noah said.

Emma raised her eyebrows. "Gosei didn't mention whether it was a guy or a girl. Besides, he said that the new ranger had already brought down one of the more powerful Armadian monsters. And if the guy, or girl, is a crook, Gosei can notify us and we'll be there in no time."

Gia nodded. "And besides, we really need this break, Noah."

Noah shrugged. "I guess. It's your say, Troy."

They turned towards me, me being the leader and all.

I slowly raised my shoulders and let them drop. "We could go…we deserve a little fun time."

Jake's smile was almost too big for his face. "So who's buying the tickets?"

 **Whew…got this into Dino Charge (or Supercharge, whatever). Hope ya'll like it, and R n R!**


	6. A Hell Lot of Triceratops

Troy's POV

A few days later, we were at the Amber Beach airport, our luggage in our hands. Noah had jet lag; Jake had been hyperactive in the plane because he apparently didn't, _ah, like_ heights, or airplanes for that matter. Gia had nodded off in the middle of a movie and was yawning and recovering, just getting acquainted with her surroundings. So far, only Emma and I were alert, which may or may not have been because of our element, air.

"So now what?" Jake was still a little jittery.

Gia shrugged, and then yawned. "We go to my cousin's place."

Noah scratched the back of his head. "Doesn't she have like a, job or something?"

"Oh, yeah," Gia frowned, looking a little confused. "Then we go to the place where she works."

Emma obviously was not comfortable with this, looking at her friend as if she had a screw loose. I didn't blame her. "I'm not sure that's a very good idea." She pursed her lips.

Gia rolled her eyes. "That's a load of bull-"

"Language," I intercepted.

"Shut up, Captain America," she muttered. "The point is, she works for archeological purposes for a museum. The one I told you about. The Amber Beach Dinosaur Museum."

I checked my watch. "We should get going."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"I'm no captain."

Cue the eye-roll.

Moving on to Act II.

The Amber Beach Dinosaur Museum seemed like a pretty cool place. A statue of a Triceratops decorated the entrance, and wooden crates, probably filled with excavated dinosaur fossils (or bones, whatever) were covered with old white, now yellowing, cloth sheets. We pushed through the glass doors to walk into a world of Dinosaur bones.

The first thing we saw as we entered was a huge bone structure of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It glared down at us, jaw unhinged, as if any moment it was about to come alive and try to eat us, so we'd have to morph into Spandex suits and kill a museum display.

Gia studied the monster, and then shrugged. "Cool."

I rolled my eyes and walked to the left of the statue. "Moving on," I called, gesturing with my hands.

We encountered a snack café, the Dino Bite Café, inscribed upon yet another Triceratops.

"Man, they must really love Triceratops dinosaurs here," Jake muttered.

"Can we grab some food?" Emma complained. "I ate _nothing_ in the flight. The food was horrible."

It was true. None of us had eaten anything, especially Jake, who'd been busy puking into a paper bag.

"Of course." Gia barged right in.

I looked back and shrugged, following her into the café.

By the time all of us were inside, Gia already had a table picked out, and was sitting on one of the chairs, gesturing to us impatiently. As I pulled back a chair and sat down, a smiling girl, with dark hair and dark eyes was standing next to the table.

"Hey," she said, smiling brightly. "I'm Shelby. Welcome to Dino Bite! What would you guys like to have?"

Gia frowned as she read the menu. "A Bronto Cheese Burger…for all of us?"

Emma half-raised her hand. "I'll have Fossil Fries."

"And a drink." Gia added.

Shelby grinned. "Stego Smoothie?"

Gia looked a little weirded out. "Sure."

"Pterodactyl melts." I said.

She jotted the order down on a notepad. "Your order will be ready shortly." She gave us one last smile, and left.

"Cheesy." Noah muttered.

About fifteen minutes later, we were digging into our food.

"This is absolutely great!" Jake said.

Noah looked up from his Bronto Burger, moth still full. He tried to make a comment, but it sounded like a prehistoric man trying to speak.

He gave up after a few seconds, and succumbed to his burger.

We paid the bill, and we walked out, Gia's Stego Smoothie still in her hand. She tried to make slurping noises while drinking, making Noah sigh in exasperation.

As we walked, we met a guy skateboarding and mopping the floor at the same time, alongside listening to music on his gray headphones.

Gia stopped abruptly, and dropped her smoothie right in front of him. I thought she wanted to pick a fight, but when I looked at her, her hand was still in the same position, her eyes wide, and her straw dangling from her lips.

"Aw, man I'll have to clean that up." The guy frowned, but grinned as he looked at her. "But I don't mind it for pretty ladies. Especially the ones swooning and fainting before me."

I looked at Gia in confusion, wondering, until my gaze fell on the guy's nametag.

My jaw fell open.

Chase Randall.


	7. Double Reconciliation

Troy's POV

It's not often you meet your long –lost best friend in the middle of a vacation with your _other_ close friends.

Gia's expression was so shell-shocked; my immediate thought was ' _I don't think she'll ever be able to speak again'._

I mean, like, you're in the middle of a boring class, just passing notes to your friends when, _BAM_ , Pikachu jumps from the window into your lap, followed by Percy Jackson chasing Mrs. O'Leary , who's jumped onto your chemistry teacher.

I know. Like, _whoa._

Chase, having cleaned up the mess caused by Gia's smoothie, was grinning amiably at her, seeming to think she was swooning, and obviously not recognizing her. Jake, Noah and Emma were staring at Gia in utter confusion, because, _duh,_ they did not know Chase. I was trying not to faint, and Gia looked like she was trying to remember how to breathe. Neither of us was able to say anything, and the other three did not know what to speak about. Chase was the only one capable of getting his vocal cords to work, so he did.

"Hey." He looked at Gia with a little uncertainty, as if picking up on her expression. "You okay?"

Gia make a sound like she was choking.

That kind of made me regain my senses and I gently put my hand on her shoulder. "I don't think so," I said, grinning at Chase sheepishly.

He frowned at her. "But why-"

"It's _you._ " Gia whispered her eyes still as wide as saucers.

"Um, yeah?"

"It's _me,_ Chase. Don't you remember?"

His arms went slack. "Oh. My. God."

He moved really fast for a normal teenager, and his arms were around her before I could say _Power Ranger._ He hugged her so tightly; I thought Gia was going to get crushed. But, when I looked at her, she was grinning like Vrak never existed.

"Chase," an annoyed voice came from behind her. "I think that kind of harassment is illegal."

A serious girl with blond hair in a ponytail, brown eyes, glasses and a frown was glaring at him.

"What are you _doing?_ " she hissed.

Chase pulled away, and his eyes were bright with tears. "Kendall, it's-"

"Shut up." She growled. Then she turned to Gia with a grin. "I've been waiting for you… and please excuse Chase. He's the most flirtatious worker I have ever come across. I knew he would do something, but I seriously didn't expect him to do that."

Jake was glaring at him too. "I'd ask him to behave."

Chase looked at him.

"Kendall," Gia was still grinning. "You don't know why."

Kendall frowned.

"I've known him since we were _kids_."

Emma's jaw hung open. "What the heck?"

I sighed. "I'll explain."

And I did.

By the time I was finished, everyone was looking like Emma, except Gia and Chase, who were grinning and had an arm draped over each other's shoulders, like they couldn't let go.

It kind of made them look ten years old again.

"All right then." Kendall was the first to recover, and was smiling at them. "Chase, you can show my cousin around. And maybe introduce them to the team."

"The team?" Gia raised her eyebrows.

Kendall bit her lip. "I know I shouldn't," she said, looking at Chase, who'd opened his mouth to speak. "But she'll help. She's strong. And we need her help. She's smarter than you think."

Gia tilted her head to the side.

"We have a lot to discuss." Kendall nodded at her.

Gia looked at Chase, who held her close. "I'll explain everything." He promised.

Gia frowned at me uneasily, and part of me felt ecstatic it was me she'd looked at for support. Then she left.

"What about us?" Noah asked Kendall.

She smiled. "I'll show you around. Let the best friends catch up, right?"


	8. Daydreams and Explanations

**Sorry doesn't cut it. I know. But consider this my Christmas present to you guys. I'll try to add another update to this story within the month.**

Troy's POV

I would be lying if I said that I was not feeling even a bit jealous.

I knew that Chase and Gia were just childhood friends and all, but I had to admit- that Chase guy was pretty damn good-looking. I'm not saying Gia was one of the swooning kind, but he was enough to make even the most resilient fall at his feet.

Yes. He was that hot.

For some reason, an old image popped into my mind. I remembered the first time I had seen Gia. I'd slipped and landed with my jaw literally on the ground. Man, had that hurt. And then the Hispanic dude with his warning/advice about hot girls. Gia wasn't less either.

I tried to concentrate on what her bespectacled cousin, Kendall, was saying. I'd vaguely realized that these guys had something to do with dinosaurs, which seemed kind of _duh_ to me, seeing as they worked at a dinosaur museum with a dinosaur (mostly triceratops) café that served dinosaur fries and dinosaur smoothies. So, what was the big deal?

"…Troy?" Noah's exasperated cut through my musings like the shark he symbolized. When I focused on him, his spectacles rested crookedly on his nose, and his face had turned a shade paler, his expression not as stern as it usually was.

"Huh?" I realized, somewhere at the back of my mind, that I was sounding incredibly dumb, and not at all like the leader I was supposed to act like. Especially since Gia wasn't there to slap some sense into me. To be fair, she _was_ the one I was, well, daydreaming about. Alongside dinosaurs and dinosaur-themed junk food.

Emma rolled her eyes at my response. "I _told_ you he wasn't paying attention."

"I _am_ paying attention." I tried to sit up straighter, as if that might make me look more alert.

Five pairs of narrowed eyes looked at me suspiciously. A blond boy wearing a green shirt had joined us at the table at some point of time; I really hadn't noticed.

Said guy cocked an eyebrow. "And who am I, then?"

I opened my mouth, and then having thought of nothing in particular to say, closed it. It reminded me of an impression of a fish.

He smiled, like, _there you go._ I couldn't help but roll my eyes at this immature or maybe not so immature response.

Kendall sighed and placed her elbows on the table and smoothed back her already smooth hair. "We get it, Riley. And Troy, I _really_ expected a team leader to listen to a discussion like this."

I shrugged, looking at the table's gray top as I felt my face burn at being reprimanded by someone not that far from my age. Then my head shot up as realization dawned upon me. "What do you mean, _as team leader?"_

Emma frowned. "In case you haven't caught the drift yet, Troy, these two know that we're rangers."

My eyebrows shot up, followed shortly by my formerly lethargic (to say the least) posture. "Why do they know? Who told them? And again, _in case you hadn't caught the drift yet,_ why?"

Jake scowled at me. "Well, aren't you attentive."

I resisted the urge to smack the idiotic green/black Snakehead in the face. Sadly, I managed to control myself, and raised an eyebrow at Noah for an explanation. He had been looking at me expectantly, and was satisfied when I spied him, and began to explain.

"As you obviously have not noticed, that in any way, anyone can be a ranger. We, as satisfactorily normal everyday teens you could find at the nearest high school, managed to quench Gosei's hunt for capable _homo sapiens,_ were assigned our respective tasks in the form of our similarly assigned color. Not in a seemingly different way, the blonds (as Gia is currently not at the table) you see seated at this table have been assigned apparently not very different tasks than ours, probably by a varying mentor, as a part of another team of defenders."

He smiled at me with the air of a person who was trying to make a child understand a somewhat average concept, complicating it tenfold in the process, and obviously not realizing the look of confusion on the child's face, and taking great pride in having the capability to do so.

I looked at Emma helplessly.

She rolled her eyes yet again. "These. Guys. Are. Rangers. Too."

I smiled triumphantly at her ability to explain something in such few words, before the meaning of the said words hit me and that smile was wiped off my face with Gia-like effectiveness. " _What?"_

Jake a.k.a. Snakehead sat back in his chair. "You heard her."

I got up so fast that my chair fell to the floor with an ear-splitting THWACK and I narrowly avoided disgracing myself by tripping over my fallen comrade, and face-planting on the squeaky-clean tiles.

Kendall winced as if my stupidity hurt, which, needless to say, did not help my dwindling self-esteem. Teenage issues.

I wheeled around and looked at the assembled party with dramatically wide eyes. "Why didn't you tell me before? Does Gia know?"

Emma frowned. "Gia knows, Troy."

Noah looked at me, a little confused. "And we _did_ tell you. You were daydreaming."

Again with the confidence-hurting comments. Ignoring his crude behavior, I generously decided to concentrate on my team's pink ranger's words. "How the hell does she know?"

Riley's eyes sparkled with amusement. "It's obvious, Red."

I cocked an eyebrow at him, the way he had done a few moments before, to me. "How?"

"Chase is our Black Dino Charge Ranger."

 **Thank you, guys! Hope you like it! R n R!**


	9. Get To Know Each Other, Then Fight

**So, hey you guys. Read on. I rarely find anything to write in A/Ns these days. By the way, who else is anxiously waiting for Ninja Steel? I know I am!**

 **This is my OTP, guys. Ship it.**

 **(In this fandom, anyway)**

Troy's POV

Gia Moran chose that _exact_ moment to run into the restaurant, absolutely _bursting_ with news.

"Oh my Gosei! You will never in any dimension believe what I just got to know! Never, ever! And by the way there are absolutely _awesome_ displays here. You guys should see the pterodactyl fossil, its absofuckinlutely amazing!" She yelled, red-faced, as behind her Chase entered, his eyebrows arched pretty high.

Leave it to our much-loved Yellow Ranger to fangirl over dead dinosaurs.

"We know what you're talking about, Gia." Noah said, frowning in disapproval. "And the triceratops model is just way better than that flying _reptile."_

Emma looked at the Blue Ranger with raised eyebrows, then at her best friend. "Fighting over which dinosaur fossil is better? That's pretty low a bar for out team's strategists."

Jake snorted. "Ya think?"

That comment wasn't going to earn him any points with Gia. I chuckled evilly at my timely realization.

Riley had risen from his chair, a bewildered expression on his face. "You're talking. ' _Oh my Gosei?'_ WTF, dude?"

I scowled at him and moved to defend my dear friend. "It's a running joke among us. Gosei is our kinda-sorta-not-really mentor."

Kendall looked mildly impressed. "You have good swear words."

Chase smirked, putting his hands on his hips. "So we should start saying 'Oh my Keeper'?"

"Or 'Oh my Kendall', I should say."

We turned around to inspect the new voice that had joined us. The dark haired girl, the waitress who'd served us at Dino Bite (Where, admittedly, we were right now) was standing behind Kendall, an amused expression on her face as she looked at Chase."I'm shocked to see you actually convinced a hot girl that you were not a total doofus."

Apparently, the girl was part of their team as well. Maybe yellow, considering the cocky attitude.

Gia went red in the face and attempted to utter incoherent words. Chase blushed, which I did not know he could, and slid his hands into his pockets. "She's not-"

I beat him to it. My jealousy-yeah, yeah, I know-got the best of me as I narrowed my eyes at the new arrival-her name was Shelby, wasn't it?-and crossed my arms over my chest. "She's not with him." I hissed. Quite literally. I hissed like a snake.

She raised eyebrows. "Someone's possessive. I'm afraid I didn't know you were her boyfriend."

Upon which Gia's face lit like a bonfire, red as its leaping ochre flames. My own felt like it was being pushed in front of an open furnace and slowly being burnt until only sinewy muscle was left. Emphasis on _open._

Then I look back upon my analogy and think, _ew._ I'd look like a zombie if, Gosei forbid, that ever happens. A very good-looking undead zombie, though.

Gia spoke. "Geez, why does everyone assume I'm dating someone? Or that someone has an obvious crush on me?"-Glances not-so-discretely at Snakehead-"I'm single and happy, goddammit."

Shelby smirked. "Glad to hear that I'm not the only clueless one here."

Gia raised her eyebrows. Glances again at Jake, then frowns and shakes her head as if dismissing an idea.

I interrupted the exchange before she could assume anything else. "You're part of a two?"

Shelby blushed and opened her mouth to speak, but Chase interrupted her. "Ever since a little _incident_ between her Tyler." He looked smug.

"She a ranger?" I asked.

"Pink." Kendall confirmed.

"And the Tyler guy?"

"The red ranger." Riley supplied helpfully.

I nodded in satisfaction. "Red always gets the girl, huh? Like Andros and Ashley?"

Chase cocked an eyebrow at me. "We'll see."

We studied each other, eyes narrowed in suspicion, like the old western movies. The tension in the air was so thick you could've cut through it with a saber.

Emma cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. "Um, guys? Can we just…have a 'get to know each other' session or something?" Smiles uneasily.

Shelby jumped at her suggestion. "Of course! I know what! We can take turns and speak a sentence about ourselves! Other than the whole Power Ranger thing, obviously."

"I'm Gia Moran." Said hot girl said. "Childhood best friend of Chase Randall."

I didn't approve what she'd chosen to describe herself as.

"Shelby Watkins. Waitress at Dino Bite."

"Riley Griffin. Expert with a sword."

"Kendall Jenner. Supermodel." We all looked at the bespectacled blonde. "What? Can't I kid about stuff? All right, Kendall Morgan, Gia's cousin."

"Jake Holling. Football player, part-time pure awesomeness."

I rolled my eyes.

"Noah Carver. Computer whiz."

"Emma Goodall. BMX biker and nature enthusiast."

"Chase Randall. Skateboarder, Gia's childhood best friend."

"Troy Burrows. Martial artist."

Gia sighed. "Now we've got that. Can we go see the museum now?" she said in a petulant voice that reminded me of a six-year old girl.

I frowned. That wasn't a really important thing we needed to check off our list. Especially when we, Megaforce, had discovered another set of Power Rangers not too far away from Harwood country. "I don't know, Gia…"

She bit her lip and gave me that puppy face look that she was fully aware I couldn't refuse. "Oh god. Okay. But only for a short trip or tour or something."

She grinned in delight and pressed her lips to my cheek, and skipped away before she could notice my evident, red-hot blush.

Shelby smiled knowingly.

Chase raised an eyebrow at the scene and followed the Yellow Ranger. So did the others; though the Pink Dino Charge Ranger held back and walked to me. "She likes you, you know," she said softly. I raised my eyebrows at her, disbelieving.

She chuckled and leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Speak now or forever hold your peace."

Then she winked at me and left.

And I, the great Red Megaforce Ranger, team leader, was left there grinning like an idiot, my cheek still tingling from the pleasant contact.

 **I know. Cheesy. But at least the romance started!**


End file.
